One minute can make all the difference. That's what Mauricio Dimas thought seven years ago, on a beautiful Sunday morning. While he was watching the sunrise, he was surprised to discover how a group of people were walking down the rocky trails of the Salvadoran mountains. They were covered in dust and mud and he watched curiously as they reached a small stream, wiped their feet, hands and faces, put on their shoes and walked smiling into the small village church. Three hours later, he went to check what was going on, because no one had left the church: "As the priest was attending three other parishes, they had been waiting for him since eight in the morning. Although, until then, my doubts about God had been many, I thought about the Church's need for vocations. With my submission, people who were waiting three hours every Sunday could start waiting two hours and fifty-nine minutes."

Mauricio was born 24 years ago in the city of La Libertad, El Salvador, into a religiously divided family: "My mother was very Catholic, and it was she who taught me to pray, but my father had many doubts that, in one way or another, influenced me during my childhood and adolescence. However, the example and faith of those humble people from the mountains completely changed her life. "I entered the seminar on January 29, at the age of 17. Although I was excited, my friends insisted that I had a life that many would wish for, but it was not fulfilling. My family didn't talk that day, they just cried," he explains. However, his joining seminar brought with it many good things. She recounts that "although for my father, at first, it was a disappointment, from that moment on he started going to Mass and visiting me from time to time. order It was one of the things he had insistently asked God for: his conversion".

This young seminarian belongs to the military bishopric of El Salvador. As he is just starting out, they do not yet have their own training house, and Mauricio and his nine companions have had to be formed in other dioceses or outside the country, "that is why I arrived in Pamplona, at the initiative of my bishop, on August 21, 2013, with the desire to continue giving myself to the Church," he explains. Currently, he is in his final year of high school program of Theology at the University of Navarra: "This experience has been a gift, a grace from God that I would never have imagined. The professors are clearly aware that their message is not only going to stay with us, but that we are going to pass it on to others. It is a place where you learn, not only from those who form us, but also from others, from the porter who welcomes us with a smile every morning, to the Chancellor, who is attentive to the University, prays for it and is interested in our training. Studying here demands that one's life and pastoral care be in accordance with what the Church wants, with love, with a sense of sanctification".

Mauricio resides at the Bidasoa International Ecclesiastical high school ; a place that, he says, has broadened his vision of the Church and the world: "Being here has been a blessing from God, not only because my 99 companions understand my vocation, but also because I have realized that the Church is more than my parish, more than my diocese, even more than the Church of my country: it is a universal Church. In Bidasoa I have learned to value my faith and to go out of myself to think of others. Here I have been taught that being a priest is not only worthwhile, but worth my life".

He assures that these five years in Spain "will mark my whole life and will demand from me a pastoral work to the height of having gone through this incredible country". Not only because of what he has learned, but because of all that his vocation has brought with it: the conversion of his father and the marriage of his parents, since they were not married. "One has to be patient with God. After much prayer, my parents went to confession and on May 18, 2014, they were married in the Church. Although I could not go to the wedding, because I was in Pamplona finishing my exams, I was able to attend via Skype. The marriage of my parents changed many things at home. Today they are happy about my future ordination to the priesthood and there is no talk of another topic", he says excitedly.

Next June, when he finishes his programs of study, he will return to his country, where he will be conferred the diaconate and will be at the disposal of his bishop: "I will give myself completely to the military bishopric of El Salvador to cover the spiritual area of the military and police personnel of my country. I hope, through them, to also reach their families and society".

Mauricio does not want to miss the opportunity to thank his benefactors for having made his training possible in Spain: "I could not spend a lifetime thanking them for everything they have done for me during these years of my stay in Pamplona. Our benefactors are not only taking care of us with their material financial aid , but also with their spiritual one. Thanks to them, we are being formed as the Church asks of us. Thanks to them, through our ministry, the word of God will change hearts, make children of God through Baptism, God will be nourished through the Eucharist, many will be confirmed in the faith, lives will be united through the sacrament of Matrimony and will be models of the love that Christ has for his Church, new vocations to the priestly ministry and consecrated life will come forth, the faults of men will be forgiven in the name of God and people will be consoled in the last moments of their life in this world. Thanks to them, we will try to make a more Christian and worthy world for the new generations, thus fulfilling what our Lord said: 'And know that I am with you always, even to the end of the age'. These people will always count on my prayers".